This invention relates to the art of anti-theft devices for vehicles and, more particularly, to an improved vehicle foot pedal locking device.
A wide variety of anti-theft devices have been provided heretofore which are operable to lock or otherwise position a foot pedal of a vehicle relative to the underlying floor board of the vehicle, thus to render the pedal inoperable in connection with driving the vehicle. Some such devices lock the foot pedal lever in a depressed position relative to the floorboard as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,387 to Knott and U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,796 to Chieh, et al. Another approach has been to lock the foot pedal lever in its released position by a device having hooks or the like on its opposite ends for engaging the vehicle steering wheel and foot pedal lever as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,435 to Farrow, U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,458 to Heh, U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,133 to Bassanitino, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,233 to Farshad. It has also been proposed as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,198 to Brown to clamp a block on a vehicle foot pedal lever such that the block engages the underlying floorboard to preclude sufficient depression of the foot pedal to enable its intended operation. Still another approach has been to provide a device including a base engaged against the floorboard of a vehicle, or otherwise secured in a fixed position relative thereto, and which base supports a member adapted to engage under the foot pedal or pedal lever and lock the latter in its released position and thus against the depression necessary for operation thereof in connection with driving the vehicle. Devices of this type are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,330,536 to Zimmermann, U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,373 to Riccitelli, U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,846 to Simon, 5,715,710 to DeLucia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,912 to Vito, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,587 to Vito.
While anti-theft devices of the foregoing character are operable for their intended purpose, there are a number of problems and disadvantages attendant to the manufacturer and/or use thereof. More particularly in this respect, some of the devices are difficult to mount and dismount relative to a vehicle foot pedal, particularly those which require the operator to crouch down or reach in from outside the vehicle so as to have access to the foot pedal lever for mounting the anti-theft device thereon or between the latter and another structural element in the vehicle. Others of the devices are structurally complex and therefor expensive to manufacture and/or cumbersome to manipulate in connection with the mounting and dismounting thereof in a vehicle and/or are massive with respect to the length and width dimensions thereof which not only adds to the difficulty in handling thereof during mounting and dismounting but also presents a problem with respect to the storage area therefor. Still others of the devices are susceptible to being easily removed by a thief sawing or cutting through a component thereof.
Of the devices shown in the foregoing groups of patents which can be mounted and dismounted by a vehicle operator sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle, namely those connected between the foot pedal and steering wheel of the vehicle and those engaged on the floorboard beneath the foot pedal and engaging under the foot pedal lever to lock the latter in the released position thereof, the latter devices of the character shown in the DeLucia and Vito patents have the advantage of being dimensionally shorter and thus requiring less storage space and the advantage of being independent of the steering wheel of a vehicle which can be readily severed by an expert car thief so as to separate the anti-theft device from the steering wheel and foot pedal. Even so, such devices heretofore available are difficult to manipulate with respect to mounting and dismounting thereof from the foot pedal lever of a vehicle and, additionally, while shorter axially than the devices connecting a foot pedal lever and steering wheel, are not dimensionally compact laterally with respect to the opposite ends thereof and, therefore, still present a problem with respect to storage space. In particular in this respect, the device in DeLucia requires manual rotation of a shaft to bring clamping members into engagement with a brake pedal lever, whereby the mounting and dismounting is both cumbersome and time consuming. In the Vito devices, the base and housing portion thereabove have to be elevated relative to the floor board to enable the passage of the foot pedal lever laterally into alignment with the slot in the housing, after which the base is lowered to the floorboard and the mounting completed by displacing the locking component relative to the housing. Again, manipulation of the device to achieve alignment of the foot pedal lever with the entrance to the slot and the subsequent lowering of the base onto the floorboard is cumbersome and time consuming. Moreover, the outer leg of the housing is channel-shaped in cross section and can be sawed through by a thief and removed from the remainder of the housing. This eliminates the slot whereby the device can be displaced laterally of the pedal lever and removed in that the locking component alone does not capture the pedal lever.